Most marketing budgets are misallocated to top-funnel (awareness) and bottom-funnel (conversion). Vaynerchuk claims the greatest ROI now lies in the mid-funnel—organic social content, podcasts, and communities—where brands build the trust and consideration that actually drives purchase decisions.

Use organic social as a mid-funnel testing ground. When a post wildly overperforms, don't just celebrate the viral moment. Repurpose that proven creative for lower-funnel performance ads and upper-funnel brand campaigns to maximize its impact across the entire funnel.

The brand's media strategy prioritizes top-of-funnel entertainment to build massive, broad awareness. This continually fills the pipeline with new audiences, which makes lower-funnel, conversion-focused tactics like retargeting cheaper and more effective than chasing a limited pool of in-market buyers.

Apply the traditional marketing funnel framework to your social media strategy. Posts can be categorized as top-of-funnel (broad, motivational), middle-of-funnel (tactical, educational), or bottom-of-funnel (direct calls-to-action for demos or calls). This provides a simple yet effective structure for nurturing an audience.

Companies should allocate a significant budget (e.g., 20%) to creating organic mid-funnel social content. Content that performs well organically should then receive media dollars for top-of-funnel (brand) and bottom-of-funnel (performance) campaigns, eliminating guesswork and waste.

Stop viewing brand as a top-of-funnel activity. For elite companies, brand isn't a precursor to selling; it is the selling. It creates inbound demand that bypasses traditional conversion tactics like search ads or affiliate marketing, making it the most powerful and sustainable growth engine.

Retail media networks, once dominated by conversion-focused tactics, now require a full-funnel approach. Hanesbrands sees significant returns from upper-funnel video content (OLV/CTV) to build awareness, which in turn feeds the lower-funnel conversion pipeline on platforms like Amazon.

The company focuses on being present in potential customers' lives during the 95% of the year they aren't making a purchasing decision. This content-led approach, described as "a form of inception," builds brand affinity and ensures HubSpot is top-of-mind when the buying window finally opens.

Instead of repurposing all content, identify the specific bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) pieces that already convert well. Turn these assets into multiple formats (e.g., blog into a YouTube video) and cross-link them. This creates a powerful, self-reinforcing ecosystem around your most valuable, lead-generating content.